Dartblog Specials: The Constitution Battle

Sunday, May 31, 2009

In an interview with The Dartmouth, alumni-elected trustee T.J. Rodgers ‘70 explained his reasons for declining to participate in future evaluations of trustees up for “re-election,” namely the “kangaroo court” nature of such discussion in…

Friday, November 3, 2006

It is an icy morning, this. But it is also the clearest in weeks. It’s a good day for Dartmouth. The constitution has been rejected overwhelmingly. It failed by eighteen percentage points in the largest…

Thursday, November 2, 2006

With record turnout—the highest ever achieved at Dartmouth—alumni voted to reject the undemocratic constitution. Fifty-one percent voted to reject the constitution, which was the position recommended here at Dartblog over the course of eighty posts…

Tuesday, October 31, 2006

Now is the time to call 603-646-2258, get your personal PIN number, and then call 866-620-4940 at any time before midnight tonight to cast your ballot against the undemocratic constitutional proposal for Dartmouth….

Monday, October 30, 2006

Dartmouth trustee Peter Robinson appears in The Wall Street Journal this morning, to defend against factually incorrect charges from constitution drafter John Daukas. The WSJ site is, of course, pay-only, so here is the text…

Saturday, October 28, 2006

In a letter of October 27 to the editor of The Wall Street Journal, reprinted below, Dartmouth alumnus Robert Downey claims that the proposed constitution for his alma mater would make trustee elections more democratic….

Friday, October 20, 2006

In today’s editions of The New York Sun, Eliana Johnson looks at the unprecedented tactics being used by the group of folks intent on passing the proposed new constitution and securing their own positions of…

Monday, October 16, 2006

At the Volokh Conspiracy this morning, Todd Zywicki posted an update on the constitution battle. Scrolling through the many comments, I noted this gem from Walker White, who has already voted ‘no’ on the constitution:What…

Friday, October 13, 2006

Grant Bosse, Class of 1994, e-mails:I ‘ve been following and working on political campaigns since well before I could vote. So I never really shared the frustration others had with all those annoying Get Out…

Tuesday, October 10, 2006

Well, then. I suppose it is safe to say that Dartmouth alumni governance has become intensely politicized in recent months. The small group which has dominated it for years—that is, those who control the debate,…

Wednesday, October 4, 2006

In the first-of-the-year issue of the Dartmouth Independent, a non-partisan publication if ever there were one, Emily Mirengoff ‘10 undertakes a primer on Dartmouth election politics, and emerges from the thicket of the proposed constitution…

By now, many Dartmouth alumni know that Peter Fahey ‘68 (who just a week ago claimed in The Dartmouth that, essentially, a vote against the constitution is a vote against Dartmouth College itself), through the…

Tuesday, October 3, 2006

A poll conducted by the Dartmouth Student Assembly—every undergraduate was invited to respond—found that 37% of students oppose the proposed constitution, while 21% favor it. 11% considered themselves undecided, and 31% marked that they either…

When it comes to the proposed constitution for Dartmouth alumni, alumni are starting to wonder whether the drafters of the constitution doth protest too much. The heated arguments in favor of the constitution, it turns…

Friday, September 29, 2006

May I observe a stunning bit of intellectual inconsistency? Over and over, proponents of an intensely controversial proposed constitution for Dartmouth’s alumni have attempted to argue that those who disagree with the constitution—those who point…

Tuesday, September 19, 2006

Another blogger picks up on the constitution battle at Dartmouth. “Bird Dog” presents the fight from a political angle (right versus left), which is one I have found generally inapt for the narrow question of…

Tuesday, September 12, 2006

Dartmouth’s Alumni Council has occasionally courted criticism as an unelected and fundamentally unrepresentative group with disproportionate power. Members of the task force which drafted a controversial proposed constitution have publicly agreed with this sentiment, and…

Monday, September 11, 2006

David Gale ‘00 has sent around the attached e-mail offering his arguments (backed by chapter-and-verse citation) against the proposed constitution. My understanding is that David only sent this message to a few hundred or so,…

Sunday, September 10, 2006

A proposed new constitution for Dartmouth alumni, which would radically overhaul the rules for electing petition trustees—an overhaul that, after the consecutive election of three such trustees, has elicited great suspicion from all corners of…

Saturday, September 9, 2006

AlumniConstitution.org, which opposes the controversial proposed constitution at Dartmouth and which kindly links to Dartblog’s posts on the matter, is sending around the below e-mail. They also have an excellent ‘e-mail a friend’ feature on…

Friday, September 8, 2006

A curious new organization has sprung up and is sending around this letter to recruit support. Please read the letter, which is signed by former chairman of the Dartmouth Board of Trustees Susan Dentzer, and…

A reader familiar with Dartmouth’s outreach to alumni writes:In “Responding to Rick Routhier” you wrote that he “had the good fortune some weeks ago to author a letter which Dartmouth College, at what I can…

Thursday, September 7, 2006

Hush, now! The posts on this ponderous proposed constitution will end in just a few weeks. For now, though, this: Rick Routhier, Class of 1973, a supporter of the controversial proposed constitution and the most…

Wednesday, September 6, 2006

The official Vox the Vote website says: “The ballot committee of the Association of Alumni is charged with running fair balloting contests for alumni trustee and for other association business that comes before the membership…

Tuesday, September 5, 2006

David Gale, Class of 2000 and a ruthlessly logical man, writes about the guidelines for creating the proposed alumni constitution ballot: “This creates a level playing field, but only if your idea of €œlevel €…

Monday, September 4, 2006

The good folks at the Journal have made gratuit their editorial of this past weekend, opposing efforts to end democracy at Dartmouth. The AlumniConstitution.org site has also made available a downloadable PDF document….

Friday, September 1, 2006

This bright morning, the editorial board of the Wall Street Journal weighs in on efforts at Dartmouth to ensure that petition trustees, such as those three most recently elected, can no longer to elected to…

Thursday, August 17, 2006

This morning’s edition of The Dartmouth carries a worrisome story by reporter Rebekah Rombom. Here is a significant portion of it, but please click here to read the whole thing.As the Association of Alumni prepares…

Friday, July 28, 2006

New information shows that the decision made months ago by the Executive Committee of the Dartmouth Association of Alumni to cancel the planned October 2006 annual elections—to stretch out their own terms by as many…

Tuesday, July 18, 2006

Adam Patinkin ‘07, president of the New Hampshire College Democrats, and Rahul Sangwan ‘07, president of the Dartmouth College Republicans, have come out in the pages of the New Hampshire Union Leader against the proposed…

Saturday, July 15, 2006

A quick glance at the official blog of the Alumni Governance Task Force — the group which drafted a proposed new constitution for Dartmouth’s Association of Alumni — reveals a major change of heart. Not…

Friday, July 14, 2006

Bill Carney is a member of the Dartmouth Council of Alumni and was asked, like his fellow Councillors, to vote on the proposed new constitution preliminarily—that is, before it goes out to the whole alumni…

Sunday, July 9, 2006

The e-mail reprinted in full below was mass-mailed on Thursday, July 6 to the members of the Dartmouth Class Officers Assocation by that association’s president. The subject line is, “Support for the Alumni Constitution,” referring…

Thursday, July 6, 2006

In the pages of The Dartmouth this morn, alum Tim Dreisbach, who has long been involved in alumni affairs, argues against passage of the proposed constitution, upon which all alumni can vote starting September 15….

Monday, July 3, 2006

Andrew Seal, editor of Dartmouth’s progressive Free Press publication, updates himself on the Dartmouth governance debate and gives this take on the “leadership arc” envisaged in the constitutional proposal which will go out to all…

Thursday, June 29, 2006

Ben Taylor, when not swabbing the decks, reports for The Dartmouth. His article this ayem is “Alumni battle in national spotlight.” Now, I hasten to add that his topic isn’t purely an alumni battle, because…

Wednesday, June 28, 2006

In an open letter to the editor of the New York Times railing against that paper’s coverage of the controversial constitutional proposal at Dartmouth College, the chief of the Alumni Governance Task Force which produced…

Tuesday, June 27, 2006

In today’s The Dartmouth, Sara del Nido reflects on the national attention recently brought upon Dartmouth as the powers that be attempt a constitutional overhaul. An excerpt:The answer perhaps lies in the universality of the…

Saturday, June 24, 2006

Dartlog has posted an audio excerpt of trustee Peter Robinson’s appearance on the Laura Ingraham Show on Thursday morning, where, after dispensing with Washington business, she asked him about the proposed new constitution here at…

Thursday, June 22, 2006

In an article viewable on the Internet here, in the International Herald-Tribune here, and in a (rather shoddy-looking) PDF document here, New York Times reporter Diana Schemo covers the battle over the Alumni Governance Task…

Saturday, June 17, 2006

“A new fight has erupted at Dartmouth College, long a battleground for conservatives and liberals warring over politics, education and values.” An old battleground? That’s possible. Few people are in a position to know, most…

Friday, June 2, 2006

My attention is called to this post at the Little Green Blog, a blog written by Dartmouth leftists including Andrew Seal, the editor-in-chief of the liberal Dartmouth Free Press. Andrew recently joined with Dartmouth Review…

Wednesday, May 31, 2006

The editor of Dartmouth’s liberal student publication, the Free Press, and the editor of its conservative publication, the Review, oppose the Alumni Governance Task Force’s proposed constitution in chorus today, demonstrating that there truly is…

Tuesday, May 30, 2006

Rebekah Rombom at The Dartmouth reports on the unconstitutional power grab of the Association of Alumni’s Executive Committee and leadership, calling it an important factor in the debate on the Alumni Governance Task Force’s anti-petition…

Saturday, May 27, 2006

The officers and Executive Committee of Dartmouth’s Association of Alumni have done to Dartmouth, to her students, and to her former students a massive disservice by canceling the annual election for the very offices they…

Friday, May 26, 2006

Posting has been light because of autre obligations, but here is your notice—the very last patina of decency has melted away. According to this letter just electronically distributed by the current leaders of Dartmouth’s Association…

Monday, May 22, 2006

A member of the Dartmouth Alumni Governance Task Force, in response to this post, writes the following in an e-mail to me:I just read your post about the council’s constitutional amendment and am dismayed by…

Tuesday, April 25, 2006

A group of five Dartmouth undergraduates has started a new petition exclusively for undergraduates who oppose the sort of tawdry politicking that’s been behind the actions of the current Executive Committee (A group which has…

Monday, April 24, 2006

Timothy Dreisbach ‘71 is in The Dartmouth today, taking umbrage at “[t]he callous disregard of democratic process by the current officials” and saying that the AGTF’s final proposed constitution is far from perfect….

Tuesday, April 18, 2006

Dartmouth’s Alumni Governance Task Force has released its latest draft. [PDF] UPDATE: The comments are already coming in. I have not yet plowed through it, but for those enterprising few who were considering it, I…

Wednesday, March 29, 2006

ACTA, a non-partisan organization based in Washington, has also taken note of the constitutional debacle here at Dartmouth. The group writes on its website:The AGTF is now writing a new constitution that would compel petition…

Monday, March 27, 2006

Charles Mitchell at The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, a nonprofit and nonpartisan organization advocating free speech at colleges, kindly links to Dartblog as he discusses the issue of the proposed constitution. Responding to…

Friday, March 24, 2006

David Gale notes that the Dartmouth Alumni Association’s Executive Committee has released new rules that could allow it to exclude petition amendments from the upcoming constitutional ballot and that it also has reserved for itself…

Thursday, March 23, 2006

Several days ago I placed a phone call to a member of Dartmouth’s Alumni Governance Task Force—a small group of alumni charged with drafting an overhaul to the constitution on which Dartmouth alumni draw their…

Tuesday, March 14, 2006

A “disgusted” young alum writes to inform me that the Executive Committee of the Assocation of Alumni of Dartmouth College has removed all doubt: They have admitted, albeit unofficially, that they plan not to allow…

Friday, March 10, 2006

Dartmouth’s AGTF has released its second-to-final draft of the constitution. Analysis to come. UPDATE: In the extended, a notice of the “Final Public Discussion” to be held in Boston. AND: My most recent writing on…

Monday, February 27, 2006

Note: This post discusses Dartmouth politics and is a continuation of “The Situation on the Charles,” which dealt with ousted Harvard president Larry Summers. Regular, non-Dartmouth readers may be mostly interested in the above. At…

Friday, February 17, 2006

From today’s issue:The surprise, then, comes from the way in which the Association went about approving these measures. As our article on Monday reported, the meeting did not follow any defined rules of procedure and…

Wednesday, February 15, 2006

As noted, the amendment to the constitution of the Dartmouth Alumni Association passed. I was surprised to find myself not agitated, as is my wont when a favored politician looses a race, but altogether downhearted…

Friday, February 10, 2006

The creaky old Inbox weighs rather decisively against the amendment up for vote on Sunday, though the majority of folks say they’ll be merely sending their regrets. Sunday afternoons in New Hampshire are hard to…

In today’s The Dartmouth, Trustees T.J. Rodgers, Peter Robinson, and Todd Zywicki point out concerns about the constitutional amendment up for a those-present-only vote on Sunday. The amendment would enable Internet voting for the adoption…

Thursday, February 9, 2006

David Gale, Dartmouth ‘00, on the amendment up for vote this Sunday:A week ago, I was planning on voting in favor, because it introduces all-media voting, which I strongly desire. Once I started posting here…

Wednesday, November 30, 2005

In this post, I reported and commented on the rule enshrined in a proposed overhaul to Dartmouth’s alumni constitution that certain groups—black, Native American, Asian, Latino, and gay—would have extra representatives in the alumni assembly….

Sunday, November 13, 2005

Image Courtesy: Scott Meacham and Dartmo.com. Circa 1950.1976: Dartmouth’s very first female students—they matriculated in 1972, taking up the rear among the Ancient Eight—are graduating and, as they receive their diplomas, they not only embolden…

Tuesday, November 1, 2005

Dartmouth, as an institution with vasty roots spread across, as the Alma Mater goes, the girdled earth, is no stranger to political, scientific, or academic controversy. No worthwhile college is, I suspect. But what is…

Friday, October 28, 2005

Despite the rejection of the petition slate of candidates at Dartmouth’s Alumni Association meeting last weekend, the so-called Lone Pine Revolution is far from over. Writers for the Dartmouth Review recently published Professor Jon Appleton’s…

Monday, October 24, 2005

Drew Cline, National Review contributor and opinion editor of the Union Leader calls it a sham election, and asks: “Where are the campus activists who are always running around advocating ‘speaking truth to power’?” Grant…

Wednesday, October 12, 2005

In The Dartmouth, alum Frank Gado of White River Junction, VT, who is running for second vice president on the upcoming petition slate, complains rightly that dissent on the proposed constitution, which would severely limit…

Thursday, October 6, 2005

Dartmouth Alumni —or at least those making the trip to Hanover for Homecoming Weekend —will be considering the proposed new constitution which would govern Dartmouth’s alumni organization and the election of the College’s trustees at…

Friday, September 30, 2005

I reported yesterday on the unfortunate specters of consolidation of power and anti-petition electioneering enshrined in a proposed new constitution for Dartmouth. Prompted by reader email, I find that it is worthy of note that…

Thursday, September 29, 2005

Joseph Asch ‘79 has a column in The Dartmouth this morning that inveighs against the proposed constitution. He writes:The Dartmouth community deserves better than schoolboy manipulation of the numbers and the petulant re-jiggering of election…

Dartmouth College is in the midst of a power shift. The Task Force on Alumni Governance was commissioned to draft an update to the constitutions of the Dartmouth Alumni Council and Alumni Association in the…

Tuesday, September 27, 2005

The Constitution of Dartmouth’s Alumni Association, the language of which governs the election of Trustees, is located right here and consists of roughly 1,500 words. That’s four pages in standard Microsoft Word formatting. A proposed…

October 18, 2009When Love Beckoned in 52nd Street
We were at San Francisco’s BIX last evening, enjoying prosecco, cheese, and a bit of music. A full year of inhabitation in Northern California has unraveled to me no decent venue for proper lounging, but…

October 9, 2009D Afraid of a Little Competish
So our colleague and Dartblog writer Joe Asch informed me that the D has rejected our cunning advertising campaign. Uh-oh. The Dartmouth is widely known as a breeding ground for instant New York Times successes,…

September 4, 2009How Regents Should Reign
As Dartmouth alumni proceed through the legal hoops necessary to defuse a Board-packing plan—which put in unhappy desuetude an historic 1891 Agreement between alumni and the College guaranteeing a half-democratically-elected Board of Trustees—it strikes one…

August 29, 2009Election Reform Study Committee
If you are an alum of the College on the Hill, you may have received a number of e-mails of late beseeching your input for a new arm of the College’s Alumni Control Apparatus called…